It is well-known that electrical components at a particular facility, such as a residence, may be electrically grounded by using a grounding clamp to bond a grounding wire to the outside surface of a meter box serving that facility. However, bonding a grounding wire to a meter box poses certain problems. For example, the outer surface of a meter box is typically coated with a protective layer of paint or some other suitable nonconductive coating. Accordingly, a grounding clamp must be capable of piercing the coating of the meter box in order to achieve a suitable mechanical and electrical connection. The grounding clamp must also be flexible enough to deal with different placements of meter boxes, and the variety of meter box sizes. All of these factors must be addressed to provide a satisfactory grounding system.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,504 and 5,006,074 are directed to known grounding clamp systems for bonding grounding wires to meter boxes. Among the arrangements described in these patents is a C-shaped clamp. In it, a screw-like member with an abrading tip is threaded through one of the legs of the C-shaped clamp. This screw member is threaded through the end of the C-shaped clamp into pressured contact with the meter box, with its abrading tip shaped to cut through the outer protective coating of the meter box to establish electrical contact with the metal beneath this coating.
This known C-shaped grounding clamp has certain disadvantages. For one, the effective conductive contact between the clamp and the metal of the meter box is limited to the area of the abrading tip. Additionally, in an attempt to make a good ground connection, an operator of the clamp can excessively tighten the screw member, thereby bending the meter box or even piercing it.